


Dawn Approaches

by j0shwash (atdc)



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Everybody Lives, M/M, Post-Canon, Prompt Fic, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-24 00:53:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4899250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/atdc/pseuds/j0shwash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A short fic based on this tumblr prompt: "Chris thinks Josh is dead and is grieving as they're waiting for the helicopter... but then Matt and Jess appear out of the woods, leading a very disoriented but alive Josh" </p><p>The snow stops once and for all as they wait for the helicopter. </p><p>It’s a blessing, it is, because it means that rescue will be there soon. It means that the five friends standing together in the early light survived the worst night of their lives. It means that they can go home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dawn Approaches

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first story that I've sat and written start to finish since I finished high school over a year ago - so although it's short, I hope you enjoy it! I'm pretty rusty.
> 
> I accept Climbing Class prompts over at j0shwash.tumblr.com, so if anybody wants me to write something, please let me know :)

The snow stops once and for all as they wait for the helicopter.

It’s a blessing, it is, because it means that rescue will be there soon. It means that the five friends standing together in the early light survived the worst night of their lives. It means that they can go home.

The problem is that there are five of them. Five where there should be eight.

 

"Mike," Chris forces himself to address the obvious. "Where's Josh?" Before the words even leave his mouth he regrets them, dreading the answer that he might get... That he will get. Because Josh isn't there with them, just like Jess and Matt aren't, and after the night they've had that can only mean one thing.

 

"He - _shit_ , Chris, do I really have to say it?"

 

"Yes, Mike," And he hates how unsteady his voice is. "You said - you said you'd get him out of there." His voice finally cracks, and he can feel tears stinging his eyes.

 

"And I tried, man! I did. I was up to my neck in freezing water and the wendigo just grabbed him - there wasn't anything that I could do. There was no point in both of us dying, okay?"

 

Chris chokes, before heaving out a sob. Why had he been so harsh on Josh earlier? He knew that he was sick. He'd known for a long time.

 

(He was the one that Josh had always turned to for reassurance and support. He was the one who visited him in the hospital less than a year ago; the one who promised not to tell the others that the older boy was suicidal. He was the one who had wanted to protect Josh. Instead, he had tied him to a post in the shed and left him to die.

 

He desperately tries not to think about what the old man told him. Being conscious as those creatures feasted on your organs... it's too much to bear.)

 

The tears are coming thick and fast now, and Chris isn't sure if he makes the decision to sink to the ground himself or if his injured leg has finally given out. His friends have gathered awkwardly in a group a few feet away from him, none of them seeming to know what to say or do. That's fine with him. Sam approaches and rests a small supportive hand on his shoulder - Josh had been like an older brother to her, after all. She’d been best friends with the twins since they were tiny.

 

“The wendigo… Mike said it was Hannah.” She sounds pained, and they stand together in silent camaraderie for what feels like hours. Chris doesn’t even think he can respond, despite the fact that he’s no longer crying. He stares down at his hands, blue from the cold and buried in the snow. He feels about as numb as his hands do.

 

Josh - _his_ Josh, the Josh that he’s known since the third grade and loved since the fourth - is gone. Chris wishes now that he’d said something to him, just so that he knew. Even if he’d rejected him, even if it had hurt, at least he would have known that he was loved. Instead, Chris had hidden it away for years. He’d even let Josh try and set him up with other people, when all he had wanted was to kiss that smug ever-present grin off of his face. And Ashley is a great girl, she is, and Chris does like her, but… those feelings pale in comparison with what he feels when Josh smiles, or makes a shitty joke, or is _there_. He should have told him.

 

He should have.

 

Somewhere, he hears Emily wondering aloud about the helicopter and its arrival. Sam slips away quietly and Chris doesn’t even notice.

 

When they emerge from the mines, beaten and bleeding but very much alive, Chris is the first person to notice. Mike runs to Jess and practically sweeps her off her feet, careful of her cuts and bruises and his fingers as he apologises over and over and presses kisses into her hair. Matt and Emily share a few words, and it’s clear that they’re both happy the other is alive, even if they don’t kiss and don’t seem to want to.

Chris can’t stop staring at Josh. He forces his numb legs up, limping over to his best friend, and takes in Josh’s appearance as he walks. His head has clearly been bleeding, and the stab wound on his shoulder seems to have opened up again. The stuffed belly of his costume has been ripped open and the cotton wadding is hanging out, stained in various shades of red and dirty brown. Claw marks encircle his throat and his face is red on one side, as though he’s been hit.

 

“ _Josh_ ,” He forces out, and the older boy’s eyes seem to come into focus. Chris shrugs off his coat and wraps it around him. “You must be freezing, bro.”

 

“Hey, Cochise,” Josh’s voice is ragged, but a little smile threatens to tug at the corners of his lips. It’s obvious that Chris bears him no ill will; he’s even acting like his old protective self. “I’m sorry.” The smile dissolves as he pulls Chris’s coat tighter around him. He seems to shrink, and he keeps apologising over and over, haunted eyes cast downwards.

 

Chris folds him into his arms carefully, and matches every “sorry” with an equally impassioned “I love you”.

 

 

In the distance, the low buzz of a helicopter can be heard.


End file.
